Tourism CS Peninah Malonza has said the country and her ministry are looking at attracting tourists who can spend more in the country.
Malonza who spoke to Citizen on Wednesday said her ministry is changing course from past targets.
She said the ministry is now aiming at a caliber of tourists who will bring more foreign exchange rather than aiming to just get higher numbers.
“For us, we’ve gone not for high numbers that really have no financial value but we’ve gone for low numbers that can spend more within the country because basically, tourism is all about foreign exchange,” Malonza said.
The CS noted that as a country it wouldn’t make any economical sense for Kenya to have a high number of tourist yet those numbers cannot be translated into higher financial returns.
“How much are they leaving in the country when they come because we don’t want to talk about high numbers yet we are not earning a lot from the tourist flow,” She said.
Malonza added that she is actively looking at ways to promote the Kenyan tourism sector locally and internationally in a digital manner that will attract the younger generation.
“We’re looking at marketing Kenya not only internationally but first we’re looking at marketing Kenya within the country."
"We’re going online to market Kenya because everybody and every new tourist is online, and especially if you look at the world population today most of it is young,” she said.
